Bridging the Divide

An ongoing exhibition at Colorado’s Fort Lewis College unites a region through Indigenous art.

Now open at the Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, is Constellations of Place, a new exhibition that explores the region of southwest Colorado and its diverse array of artists.

The exhibition’s guest curator is Meranda Roberts (Yerington Paiute Tribe/Chicana), who says that the exhibition will celebrate Native American artists, but also educate residents of the region who may feel disconnected to the land and people.

Michael Kabotie (Lomawywesa) (Hopi), Kachina Song Blessings, 1986, lithograph. CSWS permanent collection, 1994:04010

“Since the pandemic, the area has gentrified as people leave to other places. It has created a tension in this beautiful place that has become a pit stop on the way to the mountains,” Roberts says. “There was a disconnect between the locals and the students. It created a lot of opportunities with an exhibition like this.”

In a powerful statement in the exhibition’s catalog, Roberts explains further. “As a Native woman and first-generation scholar, I carry the responsibility to bring hard truths forward—with care, honor and love. Experiencing Durango was challenging because I could feel the weight of history being carried by the Native people of this region and by the students at Fort Lewis College. At the same time, I witnessed a yearning among local community members who wanted to learn, but also a gap in knowledge and understanding that has yet to be bridged. For that gap to close, there is a need for non-Native people to step in with willingness—to learn what is not easy, to listen without rushing to over-explain or apologize, and to practice empathy without defensiveness,” Roberts writes. “…[This exhibition creates] a space where truth is spoken with care, where memory is held with accountability, and where the work of reconciliation is extended through art, story and relation. Rather than treating reconciliation as a conclusion, this exhibition understands it as an ongoing responsibility—one that requires institutions, communities and visitors alike to step into deeper forms of belonging.”

Karen Clarkson (Choctaw), The Wild, Wild West, 2021, oil on paper. Courtesy of Blue Rain Gallery.

Darby Raymond-Overstreet (Navajo (Diné)), Woven Landscape: Twilight at Tsé Bit’ a’í, 2025, mixed-media/digital collage. Courtesy of the artist.

Artwork in the exhibition comes from the center’s collection, but also from artists in southwest Colorado. Artists include Venancio Aragón, Karen Clarkson, Jason Garcia, Demian DinéYazhi’, Layli Long Soldier, Cara Romero, Tyrrell Tapaha, Darby Raymond-Overstreet and many others. Mediums include weavings, paintings, sculpture, photography, filmmaking, carvings and much more.

The artwork asks visitors to reconsider what they know about the Southwest, as well as to surrender themselves to new concepts and abstract ideas.

Gerald Nailor (Navajo (Diné)), Untitled (Woman on Horseback), 1950, serigraph silkscreen. CSWS permanent collection, 1989:12003

“This exhibition is not here to celebrate anniversaries,” Roberts writes in the catalog. “It is here to interrupt them. It asks us to reckon with the histories that shaped this region, to recognize the silences we have inherited, and to step into responsibility for how we carry them forward.” —

Through December 18, 2026
Constellations of Place
Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College
1000 Rim Drive, Durango, CO 81301
(970) 247-7456, swcenter.fortlewis.edu